Face-scanning AI tests privacy limits

Face-scanning technology has become a part of everyday life for millions of people. However, the software that has impacted our lives is also testing privacy limits.

From cell phone security to social media, Americans use the revolutionary tech millions of times a day.

Phones use facial-recognition software to unlock and authorize transactions on devices.

Instagram announced last week that it is testing out face-scanning artificial intelligence to verify the age of its users, the Associated Press reported. The new A.I. prompted concerns — especially if it were to be used on minors — given that Meta, Instagram’s parent company, has a “checkered history” when it comes to users’ privacy, the AP said. Meta claimed that the tech is used only to verify age and cannot recognize identity. The company added that once age verification is complete, the video is deleted.

Microsoft has gone in the other direction when it comes to facial-recognition A.I. The corporation said this month that it was choosing to retire one if its recognition tools.

The debate over face-scanning A.I. has not been limited to the U.S. In Australia, citizens raised privacy concerns during the pandemic when the country’s police used faceprint tracking technology to check up on people’s whereabouts, the BBC reported. Authorities required selfies from residents to determine if they were violating COVID lockdown rules.

Such a move sounds foreign in the States. But are similar policies coming here?

Several major companies, including Amazon, Microsoft and Google, have declared they will not sell their facial-recognition algorithms to law enforcement agencies. And San Francisco has already banned this type of tech for government agencies.

However, schools across the U.S. are toying with the idea of using face-scanning A.I. to help increase security, according to Reuters, and discussion the technology’s use has only grown since the Uvalde shooting.

But activists are pushing for state and local officials to ban the use of facial-recognition tech in public schools.